Brentwood siblings jailed for £350,000 tax cheat
Barbados. Picture: PA/Rui Vieira - Credit: PA Archive/Press Association Images
A brother and sister from Brentwood who cheated the taxman out of £350,000 and blew the cash on a holiday in the Caribbean have each been jailed for 18 months.
Matthew, 29, and Rebecca Kania, 31, splashed out on a lavish break in Barbados while wining and dining clients at top restaurants.
They were directors of Embassy Scaffolding Services but set up “buffer companies” so they could take staff off the payroll and pocketed income tax and national insurance contributions.
Between September 2008 and June 2013 the Kanias made hundreds of thousands of pounds from 25 employees who thought they were paying their taxes to HMRC but were in fact lining their employers’ pockets.
Judge Nicholas Huskinson, sentencing at Snaresbrook Crown Court, told the pair: “I have thought very hard about whether this can be suspended but in my judgement this was a serious fraud carried out over a long time and a large amount of money was taken.
You may also want to watch:
“I would be failing in my public duty if I did not send you immediately to custody.”
Relatives of the family were horrified to see the pair, who had been embracing throughout the hearing, be sentenced to prison.
Most Read
- 1 Heritage: How bicycles, manufacturing and gas lights created Roneo Corner
- 2 Mayoral election 2021: how will candidates improve east London?
- 3 'I'm appalled at no-show bookings as pubs reopen'
- 4 Council cannot 'justify' stronger bollards after fifth crash in 18 months
- 5 Men sent to prison over death of schoolboy Harvey Tyrrell
- 6 Stall holders 'chuffed' as Romford Market reopens
- 7 Mayoral election 2021: 'Free London' candidate Laurence Fox visits Romford
- 8 Best friends open beauty academy in Romford Shopping Hall
- 9 Top Havering pubs open with beer gardens
- 10 Application for ramp to help man with cerebral palsy is rejected
Rebecca Kania, of Ongar Road, sobbed as she was led to the cells while her brother, of Queens Road, said tearfully: “I love you mum.”
Christopher Gillespie, defending the Kania’s, said: ‘It is accepted that some of the money went on high living but mainly for the benefit of Matthew rather than Rebecca.
“I would submit their lifestyle was improved rather than lavish.”
The pair pleaded guilty to a single count of cheating the public revenue.
Read more:
Couple in their 70s guilty of £140,000 benefit fraud including claim in Brentwood